Holiday Diary 2: lumps ‘n bumps and big old rocks

Day 3 of our holiday was packed with ‘lumps and bumps’, and a major disappointment. Those who follow our Twitter feed may have noticed the picture below, taken during a mid-morning visit to the stone circle at Boscawen-Un, my favourite site in Cornwall.

I had seen the tent during my approach from the A30, but had assumed it was pitched in the adjoining field. Imagine my anger and surprise when I realised the tent was actually within touching distance of the stones! Some of the guy ropes were staked within the area of worn grass immediately outside the circle. The tent flap was completely open and the occupants were fast asleep. I’ll never understand the mentality of such people – the stones are there for us all, and to ruin the ambience in such a way is totally selfish behaviour.

I don’t know if they had, or even asked for, permission, but I made a call to the CASPN hotline to inform them of the proximity of the tent to the stones, and the site manager was subsequently informed – on my return the next day the tent was gone, with flattened grass the only evidence. But I wonder how many others had the ambiance of their visit spoiled by the thoughtlessness of that couple. I left the site reluctantly, and walked across the A30 to the Goldherring settlement which I last visited 2 years ago. I was pleased to see that the clearance has been maintained and extended – even the small tree which dominated the centre of the site previously has now been removed.

Back to the car, and passing through St Just, I parked and started on the long walk uphill to the remaining Tregeseal stone circle. There were originally three circles here, but two disappeared in antiquity. I always approach this site with trepidation now, as long horn cattle are used on the common, and have been witnessed causing damage to the stones, as well as being somewhat frightening in appearance, especially to a bovinophobe like myself! However, on this occasion I was in luck, with no cattle to be seen. But my visit was unfortunately timed to co-incide with a group of over two dozen walkers from the West Penwith Footpath Association who decided to stop at the stones for their lunch break. I therefore continued across the common to look at the the two major barrows, and the group of holed stones which sit within the shadow of Carn Kenidjack. There are five stones here in total, four in a rough E-W line with the fifth a short distance off to one side at the western end of the row. None of the holes are aligned with anything obvious in the surrounding landscape, and the single stone was recently damaged (and poorly repaired)

For those who are following Sandy Gerrard’s series on Stone Rows here on the journal, I tried to see if a sea triangle view was possible at the Western end of the row, looking toward St Just, but the sky was just too hazy on the day to make anything out.

The walkers having concluded their lunch stop, I returned to the circle just as they were leaving, and finally managed to take some more photos of the circle for my collection, just as the sun decided to put in an appearance. The clouds above Carn Kenidjack seemed to be mimicing the shape of the carn below. Grateful that I’d had some time alone in the circle, I thanked the spirits of place, picked up an empty food wrapper, and made my way back to the car.

2 stone circles, a stone row, barrows and a settlement. Not a bad day’s work!